"Good," he whispered to himself quietly, voice drowned out by the noise. "Then let's make this hell worthy of them."

Kaiden's work continued in silence.

He moved deeper, carving out multiple chokeholds, narrow tunnels that suddenly opened into vast, yawning caverns. To a normal adventurer, they might look like welcome breaks in the suffocating dark. A place to rest, to gather breath. But, of course, Kaiden wasn't running a charity over here. Whatever kind of system governed the dungeons didn't force upon him anything such as breathing rooms between monster encounters.

Despite many other dungeons he's been in or heard about having some of these. Not necessarily dedicated safe zones, just places where no monsters or other hazards bothered the invading awakened.

He would have no such place.

These chambers were slaughterhouses.

Each one would serve as a perfect ambush point. A squad would push through the tight corridor, one by one, until they stumbled into open ground where they'd finally be able to spread out.

That's when it would happen.

Kaiden stood in the heart of one such cavern, the glow of the interface painting his face in cold light as he scrolled through his available options. His eyes reflected the screen's blue hue at first, then something darker, crueler.

These were things built for terror.

He confirmed the purchase with a flick of his hand. The air quivered as shapes stirred in the shadows. He moved from one chokehold to the next, repeating the process.

Every chamber was unique in structure, but identical in purpose: a bottleneck turned into a tomb.

As he dug through the abyssal rock, he suddenly broke through and faced a black abyss.

[Territory Limit Reached: 1 km² Maximum Expansion Achieved]

He was at the end.

Kaiden brought up the interface.

[DMP Remaining: 700]

He froze.

"Oh… shit."

His eyes darted over the numbers again, but they didn't change. Seven hundred. That was all he had left.

He turned, looking back at what he'd created — a sprawling labyrinth of chokeholds, kill zones, magma rivers, and abyssal corridors so dense with traps and monsters that even a seasoned raid team would need divine intervention to make it through.

It was a masterpiece of death.

It was also, unfortunately, completely unlivable.

Kaiden groaned and ran a hand down his face. "Great. I built the perfect murder maze… and forgot I actually need a place to live."

The realization hit harder than he wanted to admit. He wasn't Calypso. The demoness had fewer traps, much simpler terrain, and while her monsters numbered higher, their levels were lower. But what she did have was a towering palace, ornate halls, and crystalline balconies.

Him? He had rock. Hot, black, and utterly depressing rock.

His girls were not going to live in this.

He simply refused to have them live such a miserable life inside his own domain.

He sighed and opened the Landscape Menu, scrolling past the exotic and expensive entries. There were plenty of options, all beautiful, all far out of his price range. After all, he still had to build on top of them.

[Obsidian Ravine] – 250 DMP/km²

[Twilight Sink] – 400 DMP/km²

[Hollow Peaks] – 450 DMP/km²

And many, many more.

Kaiden scrolled past them all with a grimace. Every one of those was combat-oriented, and none were suited for living. He didn't need another battlefield. He needed a home.

So he kept scrolling.

Past the elite zones, the exotic regions, the flashy death-trap designs, until, buried at the bottom, he found something almost comically mundane.

[Verdant Expanse] – 100 DMP/km²

A temperate landscape of fertile soil and mild climate. Rolling meadows, lush forests, freshwater springs, and scattered wildlife. The air is rich in natural mana, encouraging plant growth and gentle weather patterns.

Kaiden blinked. Then he smiled.

The kind of smile that reached his eyes.

"This… this is perfect."

He expanded the preview. Gentle wind swayed green fields, with the shimmer of sunlight filtering through tall trees. Wild berries grew in the underbrush. A distant river wound its way through the valley, and faint shapes of deer-like creatures moved between the trees.

This was a comically stark contrast to what he'd been working on until now. This place had no business inside an abyssal dungeon.

Yet, perhaps exactly because of that…

"This is where we'll live."

It wasn't flashy. It wasn't grand.

But it was peaceful, the kind of place where his girls could wake up to birdsong instead of echoing screams.

He straightened, tapping the screen.

[Confirm Purchase: Verdant Expanse (1 km²) – 100 DMP]

[DMP Remaining: 600]

The confirmation chime rang, and the abyss before him began to shift, giving way to the smell of fresh grass and blooming earth.

Kaiden watched as black stone turned to soil, as light broke through what should've been endless dark. Tiny motes of green flickered to life, seedlings bursting into existence, roots sinking deep into the newborn land.

A soft laugh escaped him, quiet at first, then growing as he took in the impossible sight.

A deer, sleek, golden-brown, with faintly glowing antlers, looked up from a patch of wildflowers, froze at the sight of him, and bolted into the woods.

Kaiden's grin widened as he chuckled beneath his breath. "What the hell? This isn't abyssal one bit."

The Blood Monarch Gauntlet pulsed to life. Droplets of blood bled from the seams, forming letters in midair that hung for a moment before dripping away:

The Abyss does not care what you build. Only that you have the power to shape it.

Kaiden blinked, stunned for a heartbeat, then he chuckled again.

"I understand."

Kaiden's boots hit the grass with a thud. The ground here actually gave beneath his weight, no longer the jagged, unyielding stone of the abyss, but something living. He crouched for a second, running his hand through the soil. Warm. Damp. Real.

Then, the thought struck him.

He hadn't even looked at the rest of the Dungeon Master Interface yet.

The holographic panel unfolded before him, and he swiped to the next tab: [Items & Decorations].

Rows of greyed-out icons filled the screen. Fountains, statues, torches, banners, each with a DMP cost that made him wince. But at the very top of the list, one item gleamed with a soft, blood-red hue.

[The Abyssal Lord's Throne] – Cost: 0 DMP

He blinked.

"Free?"

Curious, he expanded the description.

—

[The Abyssal Lord's Throne]

This is the heart of your domain. The symbol of rule and defiance. It marks the end of the dungeon, the final chamber, where the Dungeon Master awaits.

Should intruders reach this throne and slay its master, the domain is conquered and its power lost.

When the Dungeon Master takes the throne, they may channel the dungeon's essence, gaining command, insight, and perhaps even strength drawn directly from the abyss.

—

Kaiden's breath left him. The image that formed above the text was unmistakable.

"The same one from Calypso's palace."

He stared at it for a long moment before closing the preview. His hand curled into a fist.

"So this must be protected at all times."

And with that, it was time to end the creation of his new home, show his girls around, and then face a shocking surprise.

Perhaps this was what they needed to finally end Maximilian's existence.

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